PJ Harvey & John Parish
I bought PJ Harvey's first album 'Dry' when I was 14 years old and have been following her music ever since. She's an extraordinary artist so it was a real pleasure for me to be given the opportunity to photograph her earlier this year. Both her and John couldn't have been sweeter people to work with and I hope to work with them again in the future.

Joanna Newsom
I've photographed Joanna Newsom a couple of times now and what stands out to me the most is her wicked sense of humour. The second time I met her we had to shoot in the local launderette because she had to do her laundry and had no other free time. I noticed as I was taking the photo of her sat in front of the machines that somebody had scratched 'slut' into the glass door above her head. "Leave it in" she insisted, "Don't photoshop it out". You can see it if you look close enough... As we drove her back to her hotel we passed a massive billboard of Razorlight. She gave them the two fingers and hollered "Fuck you Razorlight" as we zoomed through the heart of Shoreditch.

Fucked Up
Fucked Up were just good clean fun. I like it when a band can just be themselves on a shoot and not feel they have to behave in a certain way. Photographing this lot was like hanging out with old friends. They told me disgusting tales of their friends back home whilst their new album played in the background. It was a breeze.

Scout Niblett
I'd wanted to photograph Scout for a while because I was a fan of her music. The opportunity came up to photograph her for the cover of Plan B magazine so I took it. We had a fun time in a central London park on a beautiful autumn afternoon, running around getting drunk whilst she pretended to be Angelina Jolie. I learnt a lot about her husband Brad Pitt that day.
At the end of the day we packed up to leave and were walking towards the entrance when I saw the photo I'd been waiting for all day. I unpacked my camera and made her sit for one last shot - It turned out to be my favourite shot of the whole day, her looking up at the sky, crown in place, backlit by the setting sun.....

Bradford Cox
I went along to photograph Deerhunter for a magazine last year and Bradford was in a really bad mood when I turned up. He clearly didn't want to be photographed and I just had to roll with it. I actually liked it that there was no false conversation, no small talk. He was in a bad mood and was just being himself and I was the observer. We did some group shots, Bradford hissing and spitting everywhere, then I thought it would be good to get everyone on their own for some individual shots. When it was Bradford's turn he just crouched down and curled up into himself, hiding behind his hands. It's one of my favourite portraits in the show.

Cat Stevens began to photograph bands in 2003. By 2004 her photographs were getting published regularly in the highly respected underground music magazine Plan B, where she later became Photo Editor. Cat continues to shoot portraits for a variety of press publications and record companies, including British Vogue and Island Records.

www.catstevensphotography.com

WHERE:
Rough Trade East, Dray Walk, Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL

WHEN:
Private view:November 6th 2009, 6pm-9pm
November 5th 2009 – January 30th 2010